More on the submarine CO who submerged his career

Many years ago I spent a lot of time prosecuting and defending “pack rats.” There was a slew of “national security cases” in the late 1980’s, post-Walker. It appears there is a new name for personnel who took classified material home either by accident (in the briefcase or notebook), or because they wanted to have them as examples for future work. That was in the days before just about everything was available in digits and electronically. Dwight “My Liege” Sullivan will remember, but won’t tell, such a case – McGuinness., 35 M.J. 149 (N.M.C.M.R. 1992); actually this would be when DMLS and I first “met.”

Now it is called “electronic spillage.” Interesting, just keeping up with the times.

Navy Times reports:

Cmdr. Michael Varney had a spotless career. The 45-year-old submariner led rebuilding efforts in a dangerous province of Afghanistan, earned a Bronze Star and was the commander of the attack submarine Connecticut, successfully leading the Seawolf-class sub on multiple deployments.

That was until he sat down on the morning of Jan. 31 for a routine security interview. As part of the security check, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service asked him questions about his handling of classified materials.

(Side note: you get “credit” for being truthful in a security clearance application/interview; so the question sometimes is, “do I tell them about . . .. It’s the cover-up the CCF’s don’t like, and a cover-up or untruthfulness is an almost guaranteed Clearance Denied.)